Jimmie Hudson Kolp

Kolp's airfield was a working one. Her husband gave her 120 acres of pasture near Electra for it, and at one time she kept nine airplanes there. She gave flying lessons and flew as a courier in the Second World War. She was also a trustee of the Amelia Earhart Foundation, regional director of the National Aeronautics Association and national treasurer of the Ninety-Nines, the international organization of women pilots. The Wichita County Historical Commission placed the marker at Wichita Falls Regional Airport, far from the pasture where her flying began.

What the plaque says

Jimmie Hudson Kolp (1904-1970). During the pioneer era of aviation, most women were discouraged from participating or relegated to subordinate roles. In spite of these obstacles, a few brave women were among the first pilots. Born in 1904 in Copperas Cove (Coryell Co.), Jimmie Hudson moved with her family to Electra in 1912. She became fascinated with flight after a chance meeting with a pilot in 1928 and began flight instruction April 9, 1929, in an Alexander Eaglerock biplane with a Curtiss OX5 engine. For Christmas in 1929, her husband, Charles (1878-1947), gave her a single-engine Spartan aircraft and 120 acres near Electra that would become Kolp Air Field. During WWII, Kolp held events at the air field to raise money for war bonds, and the field was used to train Air Force pilots stationed at nearby Sheppard AFB. Kolp was the first aviatrix in Wichita County and among the first in the state and nation. She was also the first woman commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Texas Civil Air Patrol. Kolp's adventures took her all over the world, including India, where she met a female co-pilot for Indian Airlines; South Korea, where she witnessed the released crew of the U.S.S. Pueblo return to the U.S.; and Australia, where four escaped convicts helped free her plane, which was stuck in the mud. Kolp died in 1970 after flying herself to Dallas for medical attention. Over her lifetime, she logged more than 5,000 hours in the air and was a state, national and international supporter of aviation advances. She was a leading advocate for female pilots, serving 40 years as a member and officer of the Ninety-Nines, an organization for female aviators founded by Amelia Earhart. Jimmie Kolp is buried in New Electra Cemetery. (2020)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• World's Littlest Skyscraper — 3.4 mi
  A four-story brick tower in downtown Wichita Falls, 40 feet tall and 10 feet wide, the leftover of a 1919 oil-boom office deal in which, the story goes, investors misread inches as feet.
• Kell House Museum — 3.9 mi
  The 1909 Classic Revival house of Frank Kell, the miller and railroad builder who helped make Wichita Falls a city, shown by guided tour with its family furniture still in place.
• Lake Arrowhead State Park — 15 mi
  A prairie park on the north shore of the Wichita Falls water-supply lake, which drowned the town of Halsell in 1965-66, with mesquite campsites, a lighted pier and more than 200 bird species.
• Clay County 1890 Jail Museum — 20 mi
  Henrietta's 1890 stone jail a block from the domed courthouse, now the county museum, with its original cells, a gallows that was never used and the sheriff's family quarters.

More markers nearby

• Sheppard Air Force Base — 1.1 mi
• Ohio Street Bridge — 2.9 mi
• Hotter 'N Hell Hundred — 3.1 mi
• Joseph Sterling Bridwell — 3.2 mi